Spring events
It occurred to me, John and I have been out of town 4 out of the last 5 weekends. Or maybe it was 5 out of the last 6 weekends. All I know is, we were both looking forward to spending a full weekend in Chicago. As it was, we were really busy.
My friend Billy was in town for another C2E2 Comic Convention as of last Thursday night! It was great to see him again, even if we didn't have time to hang out all that much!
Fun Cast of Characters
Thursday afternoon Billy and I met some of his friends at bar in Wrigleyville. After that, we picked up John and went out to dinner. Then, all three of us went off to a brewpub with more of the C2E2 crowd. It was a great time.
Although I planed to go to C2E2 with Billy on Friday, some other things got in the way. I ended up working all day and then grabbed some bbq for dinner with John. We stopped by SoFo Tap for a nightcap and that was it. John and I went to bed and I vaguely heard Billy stumbling in and working his way back to the guest room sometime after 1am. Ha! Saturday morning, while Billy went back to C2E2, John and I went to a memorial service for my friend's Dad, and a then a cook-out late Saturday afternoon. There was grilling on the back deck but as the temperatures cooled most of the large group stayed inside, anyway.
John and I made a pasta salad for the cook-out.
Aside from great food and company, there were also puppies. I heart puppies.
Late Saturday night we went out to the burbs to see the house my friends Brian and Chris bought; it looks great and while they have a lot of work to do on it, I can see exactly why they purchased it. We got home late, and as before, John and I vaguely heard Billy stumble in from C2E2 after 2:30am, as he made his way back to the guest room again!
And on Sunday, at the end of April another ritual started: the return of softball.
The 2013 Sausage Kings
I was pretty happy to play softball again after taking 2012 off due to an injury. I was a little worried about spraining my ankle while playing, but I took it easy. I'm not a great player to begin with (some would even say I'm pretty crappy! lol), but I was able to hobble the bases pretty fast. Since it was the first week of the season, all the recreation leagues are rusty. I was at second base when someone on my team got a great hit to right field. I hobbled to third and decided to just go to home. By the time the first baseman realize what was happening, I was halfway there. She overthrew and I made it home with time to spare, which is what I thought would happen. I joked "never underestimate the lame guy!" Really, it was a dumb thing to rush home, but I figured the worst that would happen is that I would be tagged out. At another point yesterday, I actually ran from second to third base and dodged the shortshop trying to tag me out, which surprised me as I pivoted on my bad ankle. The sports brace is clearly helping.
So while my lame leg is a bit of a handicap, I was never a great player to begin with so I'm not too upset. Even better, my team is super awesome - we play to have fun, and winning is just icing on the cake. We've got good and bad people on the team, but everyone treats everyone else on the team really well. I love it, and I think the vibe on the team is better than ever. Oh, and John's on the team now too, so that's another fun and awesome thing for me. We lost our first game by 3 or 4 runs, but I think we were 20+ runs up in winning our second game. Not a bad way to start the season.
And so, another week begins. Nothing too exciting coming up, which is fine with me. It has been so busy for so long, a few weeks of the same old, same old will be a welcome change.
My friend Billy was in town for another C2E2 Comic Convention as of last Thursday night! It was great to see him again, even if we didn't have time to hang out all that much!
Fun Cast of Characters
Thursday afternoon Billy and I met some of his friends at bar in Wrigleyville. After that, we picked up John and went out to dinner. Then, all three of us went off to a brewpub with more of the C2E2 crowd. It was a great time.
Although I planed to go to C2E2 with Billy on Friday, some other things got in the way. I ended up working all day and then grabbed some bbq for dinner with John. We stopped by SoFo Tap for a nightcap and that was it. John and I went to bed and I vaguely heard Billy stumbling in and working his way back to the guest room sometime after 1am. Ha! Saturday morning, while Billy went back to C2E2, John and I went to a memorial service for my friend's Dad, and a then a cook-out late Saturday afternoon. There was grilling on the back deck but as the temperatures cooled most of the large group stayed inside, anyway.
John and I made a pasta salad for the cook-out.
Aside from great food and company, there were also puppies. I heart puppies.
Late Saturday night we went out to the burbs to see the house my friends Brian and Chris bought; it looks great and while they have a lot of work to do on it, I can see exactly why they purchased it. We got home late, and as before, John and I vaguely heard Billy stumble in from C2E2 after 2:30am, as he made his way back to the guest room again!
And on Sunday, at the end of April another ritual started: the return of softball.
The 2013 Sausage Kings
I was pretty happy to play softball again after taking 2012 off due to an injury. I was a little worried about spraining my ankle while playing, but I took it easy. I'm not a great player to begin with (some would even say I'm pretty crappy! lol), but I was able to hobble the bases pretty fast. Since it was the first week of the season, all the recreation leagues are rusty. I was at second base when someone on my team got a great hit to right field. I hobbled to third and decided to just go to home. By the time the first baseman realize what was happening, I was halfway there. She overthrew and I made it home with time to spare, which is what I thought would happen. I joked "never underestimate the lame guy!" Really, it was a dumb thing to rush home, but I figured the worst that would happen is that I would be tagged out. At another point yesterday, I actually ran from second to third base and dodged the shortshop trying to tag me out, which surprised me as I pivoted on my bad ankle. The sports brace is clearly helping.
So while my lame leg is a bit of a handicap, I was never a great player to begin with so I'm not too upset. Even better, my team is super awesome - we play to have fun, and winning is just icing on the cake. We've got good and bad people on the team, but everyone treats everyone else on the team really well. I love it, and I think the vibe on the team is better than ever. Oh, and John's on the team now too, so that's another fun and awesome thing for me. We lost our first game by 3 or 4 runs, but I think we were 20+ runs up in winning our second game. Not a bad way to start the season.
And so, another week begins. Nothing too exciting coming up, which is fine with me. It has been so busy for so long, a few weeks of the same old, same old will be a welcome change.